2007 Rhymes With Devin
So here it is, the beginning of a new year, and it happens to be the year I turn 30! (Yikes!)
I rung in the new year at Hamburger Mary's in Newport Beach because my band had just finished playing three sets there. I will now briefly discuss that experience. We were very happy before the show. First, our hotel room was much bigger and nicer than the hotels we usually get to stay in. It even had a separate bedroom in addition to the bed in the main room. The venue was great. The stage was big and we got our own backstage dressing room. We got to eat for free before the soundcheck.
After soundcheck, we got ready in our room and finally came out to play our first set around 9:15pm. There were not as many people there as I would have expected, but I was told by two different waiters that they were expecting a full house. We started with "Mustache Rides Five Cents" and went through the entire set, only dropping one song ("Calendar Girl") so we played 8 songs in that set. We debuted one new song, "Delay" which we are recording as a b-side for the "Slut Buffet" Remix Single. After the set we took a short break.
We came back out after 10pm and opened with "Guerilla." There were a few more people in the audience but still not crowded. This was my favorite set because we brought it down and did an acoustic song, "Luscious Mag" which one girl really liked and was lucky enough to get the last copy of the "Ladyslipper" CD single which is the only place that song is available. We also did a brand new cover, "Coal Miner's Daughter" which I thought went over really well. We ended up dropping two songs from this set, our cover of Electric Six's "Boy or Girl" (since no one there would have known it and we're not that great at it anyway) and "The Collection" which we still have never played live.
By this time I think we were all getting a little frustrated with the rather sedated crowd. I had envisioned that there would be people eating so we would be kind of a background band, but there weren't that many people eating; most of them were at the bar and looked bored. It didn't feel like New Year's Eve. I didn't feel like we were boring, either. Also, there was supposed to be a 9:00 seating and 10:00 seating, so I had naively assumed there would be a big turnover of audience members. As it turned out, it was pretty much the same people sitting at the bar for all three sets.
Anyway, we took another break and I thought we had been pretty clear with the organizer and the sound person that we had one more 45 minute set that would start at 11pm, so there would be 15 minutes between our last song and the ball dropping. We had saved our best, most up-beat and danceable songs for the last set. It was going to be killer. I thought everyone would finally be loosened up and excited and ready to dance and get crazy. We started this set with "Mechanically Separated Chicken" and a few people did actually start dancing. Then we did "Incomparable White Six" which seemed to keep the energy up, but sometime during this or possibly the next song, our revived cover of "Words", the promoter told us we needed to wrap it up. Well we still had 6 songs left but I guess we were told to only play a couple more. It sucked because all our favorite songs were still left. And all of us in the band had a different idea of which ones we wanted to play. In the end, we somehow ended up doing our cover of "Hella Good" which I thought was OK but I really had imagined more audience singing along and dancing. After this song was over, I really really wanted to do the "Slut Buffet" remix, and I know Brandon really wanted to do "Apple Falls." However Amy said we were told to only play one more, so we did our Altered Images cover of "Happy Birthday" but changed to "Happy New Year" which was a lot of fun but I couldn't help feeling a little anti-climatic since we still had three other songs we really wanted to play ("R So" was also cut out, as was "No Safe Words" which we would have cut anyway.)
After we were done, a whole bunch of people got up on the stage and started dancing to the DJ which just shows that it was not the type of crowd that wanted to see a band - they wanted to be onstage themselves dancing to "Fergaliscious." So I can't get too upset but it just wasn't exactly what I had hoped for. It's never the way you imagine it.
Anyway from there we hung out and then went back to the hotel for our own little new year's party with some camcorder chenangigans and very many rounds of 80's music hangman and 20 questions going well into the new year.
Dylan's phone alarm went off at 11:00 am, which happened to be check out time, I and I was extremely pleased that we actually all got up and out of the room before noon. We went to eat at Coco's and had a very friendly waitress so that was a good experience.
When we got home, I watched an episode of Roswell on DVD and then took a nap.
I don't really have any profound thoughts for the new year. I do hope that it's a great year but I'm trying not to build it up too much. 2006 was a really great year for me, possibly one of the best ever, and I don't even want to say that 2007 has to be better. Even if it's just as good, I'll be happy. Hopefully with the band, we have built up the momentum to the level where any year is going to be bigger and better than the last.
As far as resolutions, I didn't really bother this year. As usual, I am starting the year out with a juice fast (third year in a row) and a goal to get in shape by the summer, which is always my goal and I'm usually pretty OK with the results. Seven years ago, I made a resolution to loose all the weight I had put on in college, and by June 2000 I had lost over 50 pounds. Of course I don't ever expect or need to duplicate that success, I did weigh myself today and decided I'd like to lose 15 pounds, although I'm also interested in building some upper body muscle so I'm not as concerned with the weight.
OK now I'm just rambling, so I'll just say "HAPPY NEW YEAR" and let's all give it our best this year.
I rung in the new year at Hamburger Mary's in Newport Beach because my band had just finished playing three sets there. I will now briefly discuss that experience. We were very happy before the show. First, our hotel room was much bigger and nicer than the hotels we usually get to stay in. It even had a separate bedroom in addition to the bed in the main room. The venue was great. The stage was big and we got our own backstage dressing room. We got to eat for free before the soundcheck.
After soundcheck, we got ready in our room and finally came out to play our first set around 9:15pm. There were not as many people there as I would have expected, but I was told by two different waiters that they were expecting a full house. We started with "Mustache Rides Five Cents" and went through the entire set, only dropping one song ("Calendar Girl") so we played 8 songs in that set. We debuted one new song, "Delay" which we are recording as a b-side for the "Slut Buffet" Remix Single. After the set we took a short break.
We came back out after 10pm and opened with "Guerilla." There were a few more people in the audience but still not crowded. This was my favorite set because we brought it down and did an acoustic song, "Luscious Mag" which one girl really liked and was lucky enough to get the last copy of the "Ladyslipper" CD single which is the only place that song is available. We also did a brand new cover, "Coal Miner's Daughter" which I thought went over really well. We ended up dropping two songs from this set, our cover of Electric Six's "Boy or Girl" (since no one there would have known it and we're not that great at it anyway) and "The Collection" which we still have never played live.
By this time I think we were all getting a little frustrated with the rather sedated crowd. I had envisioned that there would be people eating so we would be kind of a background band, but there weren't that many people eating; most of them were at the bar and looked bored. It didn't feel like New Year's Eve. I didn't feel like we were boring, either. Also, there was supposed to be a 9:00 seating and 10:00 seating, so I had naively assumed there would be a big turnover of audience members. As it turned out, it was pretty much the same people sitting at the bar for all three sets.
Anyway, we took another break and I thought we had been pretty clear with the organizer and the sound person that we had one more 45 minute set that would start at 11pm, so there would be 15 minutes between our last song and the ball dropping. We had saved our best, most up-beat and danceable songs for the last set. It was going to be killer. I thought everyone would finally be loosened up and excited and ready to dance and get crazy. We started this set with "Mechanically Separated Chicken" and a few people did actually start dancing. Then we did "Incomparable White Six" which seemed to keep the energy up, but sometime during this or possibly the next song, our revived cover of "Words", the promoter told us we needed to wrap it up. Well we still had 6 songs left but I guess we were told to only play a couple more. It sucked because all our favorite songs were still left. And all of us in the band had a different idea of which ones we wanted to play. In the end, we somehow ended up doing our cover of "Hella Good" which I thought was OK but I really had imagined more audience singing along and dancing. After this song was over, I really really wanted to do the "Slut Buffet" remix, and I know Brandon really wanted to do "Apple Falls." However Amy said we were told to only play one more, so we did our Altered Images cover of "Happy Birthday" but changed to "Happy New Year" which was a lot of fun but I couldn't help feeling a little anti-climatic since we still had three other songs we really wanted to play ("R So" was also cut out, as was "No Safe Words" which we would have cut anyway.)
After we were done, a whole bunch of people got up on the stage and started dancing to the DJ which just shows that it was not the type of crowd that wanted to see a band - they wanted to be onstage themselves dancing to "Fergaliscious." So I can't get too upset but it just wasn't exactly what I had hoped for. It's never the way you imagine it.
Anyway from there we hung out and then went back to the hotel for our own little new year's party with some camcorder chenangigans and very many rounds of 80's music hangman and 20 questions going well into the new year.
Dylan's phone alarm went off at 11:00 am, which happened to be check out time, I and I was extremely pleased that we actually all got up and out of the room before noon. We went to eat at Coco's and had a very friendly waitress so that was a good experience.
When we got home, I watched an episode of Roswell on DVD and then took a nap.
I don't really have any profound thoughts for the new year. I do hope that it's a great year but I'm trying not to build it up too much. 2006 was a really great year for me, possibly one of the best ever, and I don't even want to say that 2007 has to be better. Even if it's just as good, I'll be happy. Hopefully with the band, we have built up the momentum to the level where any year is going to be bigger and better than the last.
As far as resolutions, I didn't really bother this year. As usual, I am starting the year out with a juice fast (third year in a row) and a goal to get in shape by the summer, which is always my goal and I'm usually pretty OK with the results. Seven years ago, I made a resolution to loose all the weight I had put on in college, and by June 2000 I had lost over 50 pounds. Of course I don't ever expect or need to duplicate that success, I did weigh myself today and decided I'd like to lose 15 pounds, although I'm also interested in building some upper body muscle so I'm not as concerned with the weight.
OK now I'm just rambling, so I'll just say "HAPPY NEW YEAR" and let's all give it our best this year.
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